Good news for the State of Rhode Island, 38 Studios has cut a check to the state and it cleared. Bad news is that it still hasn’t paid its employees yet. Worse news is that the state has no intention of giving the studio any additional funding so it is going to need funding from an outside source in order to make it till the June 20th, 2013 launch of the MMO project that the studio has been working on called Project Copernicus.

The developer has released what can be best described as a “sizzle reel” showing of the MMO game known as Project Copernicus. What is interesting is that Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee says that Project Copernicus will launch in June of 2013.

Not that we are judging here, but June 20th of 2013 is a long way off and in order to make that deadline, you are going to need to pay developers and in order to pay developers you are going to need money. Right not 38 Studios does not have the money to meet payroll and these folks are not going to work for free on this till June 20th of 2013 hoping that everything comes together.

Sources we have spoken will say that it will be difficult to get the kind of funding in place that it is necessary to finish the game by June of 2013, but it is possible. We suspect however with such a compressed time frame it could be much more difficult than leaders at 38 Studios think, but we will just have to wait and see how this saga unfolds.

Boffins at Carolina State University have come up with a "universal" memory technology that combines the speed of DRAM with the non-volatility and density of flash.

Professor Paul Franzon told EE Times that the new memory technology should enable computers to power down memories not currently being accessed, drastically cutting the energy consumed by computers of all types, from mobile and desktop computers to server farms and data centers.

The technology uses a double floating-gate field-effect-transistor (FET) is as fast as DRAM and will need to be refreshed as often. However the densities will be about the same as flash.

The double floating-gates use direct tunneling when storing charge to represent bits. This means that the whole lot is done at lower voltages.

The first floating-gate requires refreshing about as often as DRAM. But if the boffins turn up the voltage its data value can be transferred to the second floating-gate, which acts more like a traditional flash memory, offering long-term nonvolatile storage.

The upshot is that a computer can operate normally until they become idle. Then their data values are transferred to the second gate in order to power down the memory chip. When the computer needs the stored values, the second gate quickly transfers their stored charge back to the first gate and normal operations can resume.

Franzon said that the method will enable power-proportional computing, by allowing memory to be turned off during periods of low use.

Isn’t it grand how the government's mistakes come back to haunt students, of all people. An email from SIPA's Office of Career Services warns students that posting, discussing or in any way commenting Wikileaks, whether it is on twitter or Facebook, may affect your chances of getting a job in the federal government.

Apparently, "Engaging in these activities would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information, which is part of most positions with the federal government." Of course, nobody takes the effort to explain to students how the diplomatic cables leaked when dealing “with confidential information” is one of the main prerequisites.

Federal government job vacancies “would require a background investigation and in some instances a security clearance.”, it goes on saying. It does not say anything about freedom of speech, of course, as that lousy practice already seems to be heading for the window. Also, take care to close your window.

State Department’s spokesperson Philip J. Crowley denies that the government is behind this. He says that instructions have been given to State Department employees and adds:"If an employee of the State Department sent such an email, it does not represent a formal policy position."

Certain students have reacted with some of them even forming the wrong kinds of opinions – their own. Some say they’re “amused and surprised”, but the fact remains that the subject is “sensitive” and it may cost them their futures. [As if they had any in this economy. sub.ed.]